The Nokia N96 smartphone has now gone on sale in Finland and in the United Kingdom as well as several other European countries, so presumably it should be available across the continent very soon. The N96 is N-Gage compatible, includes gaming keys using an N95-style double slider, and will apparently come with the N-Gage application built into its firmware so you can use it with the platform straight out of the box. A number of N-Gage demos will apparently also come pre-loaded, and there will be a voucher for one free game included in the sales package.

As this is the first phone to have N-Gage built into it from day one, Nokia unlocks a considerable number of points on its N-Gage Point Pickups, and also arguably ushers in the true launch of the new platform.

You can find out more about the N96 from our sister site All About Symbian's recent hands-on preview in September, and an earlier preview based on a prototype way back in February.